XTERRA is an international adventure brand with a cult following of runners, mountain bikers, and endurance atheletes. XTERRA is passionate about challenging triathletes around the world to push themselves to the limit, competing on some of the most breathtaking natural courses all over the globe. Our challenge was to communicate XTERRA’s rugged, outdoorsy nature while also designing a modern look for the XTERRA Adventures brand, making it appeal to a wide range of television viewers as well as the athletes that participate in the events.

While performing our competitive audit for this project, we realized that communicating a rugged, outdoorsy message doesn’t have to be literal. Dirt splatters, grungy visual treatments, and bulky fonts are the norm in this space, but a brand in that vein would not appeal to XTERRA Adventure’s wide ranging viewer demographics or the diverse group of triathletes that compete in XTERRA’s events. XTERRA’s participants are fearless, versatile, and unapologetically bold, so we saw a perfect opportunity to re-align the XTERRA Adventures brand to match those attributes while giving them a modern edge.

We worked with the XTERRA Adventures team to forge a powerful brand that represented it’s daring athletes and appealed to it’s thrill-seeking television audience. From the streamlined identity to the action-packed on-air graphics, every aspect of the XTERRA Adventures brand was brought into alignment with the company’s key values in order to create an experience that resonates with the brand’s cult following. Unexpected, exciting, and bold. Just like racing in one of XTERRA’s events.

Given the strong brand already established by XTERRA, we wanted to lean on that brand equity by using the same attention-grabbing red, grey, and white color palette in the XTERRA Adventures on-graphics and merchandise. Rather than making XTERRA Adventures into a separate branch of the XTERRA brand, we ensured that the brands remained in alignment in order to allow them to work seamlessly under the same umbrella.

A major part of this project was creating the on-air graphics package for the XTERRA Adventures TV show, including show open, lower thirds, as well as various transitions and animations. We wanted to fuse together the natural elements of the races with the contemporary direction of the brand we established, which is reflected in the crisp animations layered over the mountainous backdrop in the show open. We ensured the animations were precise and deliberate, giving a sense of action, speed, and scale.

To complete the branding, we designed a variety of apps, products, and merchandise reflecting the new XTERRA Adventure’s brand. We ensured the elements of speed, strength, and cutting-edge were reflected throughout all of XTERRA Adventures’ offerings.